Now we get to look at some real, every day applications that people use. All of these tests were run as you would if working with the application directly; there are no scripts to execute and the actual applications are used.

These days, with the creative process, artists need to move at maximum speed in order to tackle incredible deadlines, demanding work and high expectations. Using LightWave either exclusively or in a pipeline, makes it possible for an individual, a small team or a major facility to see their dreams and ideas come to life with award-winning quality work on time and on budget. Artists all over the world say the speed, flexibility, value and control they gain with LightWave throughout the creative process lets them get it done.

LightWave is a complete modeling, rendering and animation system. Used extensively in broadcast television production, film visual effects, video game development, print graphics and visualization, LightWave is responsible for more artists winning Emmy Awards than any other 3D application.

For testing I ran version 9.3 in discovery mode and rendered frame 32 of the moon base scene (which can be found on the content CD1). Our settings were :-

Resolution - 1080i

Segment Memory - 512MB

AA filter - 7-Pass PLD

Reconstruction Filter - Gaussian Sharp

Threads - 8 (one for each physical and logical core)

Classic Cameras

Viewer resolution - 640x480

(Click the above image for the large version)

Things are pretty self explanatory here. The i7 975 knocks almost 20 seconds off of the render time while the overclocked 975 gets us close to the two-minute mark.

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